Sunday, March 28, 2010

We always attend dinners at our family's houses (one night his and one night mine).

This year my parents are away - no problem.

So I decided to make a dinner for my family.

I saw a friend in the store (actually her husband - he does the shopping) and asked what they were doing, they had no plans for the second night. I invited them to come over.

She called me back and we made a plan.

I love having friends over.

So, here's my menu:

Brisket

Turkey Breast (have to have variety)

Matzoh Ball Soup

Apple Matzoh Kugel

Charoset (gonna try something new from here)

Matzoh Crunch

Chocolate Covered Macaroons

The Brisket is cooking now. Recipe is easy-peasy.

Brisket

Onion soup mix

Ketchup

Onions

Pre-heat oven to 350. Mix onion soup mix and ketchup to paste like consistency. Cut onion into rings and lay on bottom of pan. Lay brisket on top of onions and rub paste all over it. Put in the oven, covered. Cook 2-3 hours or until tender. Remove from oven and let cool. When it becomes room temperature slice against the grain and put back into the pan (with the onions and juices). Refrigerate or freeze. Reheat when ready to serve. The longer it sits the better it tastes.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Can you believe those roses? Some are left over from my birthday last week and some as a gift for my Tricky Tray.

You know the trick to cutting flowers, specifically roses?

Lay them down in a room temp tub/basin of water and cut them while under water. Always keep the water full and never have the leaves from the stems in the water (they create bacteria). Roses drink from their full stem. I learned this many years ago when I took floral design as a science at community college. I still use some of my skills.

Those yellow roses are from a week ago and not from some fancy florist.

I love flowers so I am going to try and get some in the house more often.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

This week I tried two new recipes so that should make up for missed weeks, right?

SO, tonight I tried to make Corned Beef (in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day and my Irish roots somewhere) and Braised Red Cabbage (why do they call it red when it is really purple?).

The recipe for the corned beef was rather simple, I just followed the directions on the package. It took longer than the package said but my husband the Culinary Graduate said I did not have it on a TRUE simmer. Umm, okay.

The recipe for the Braised Red Cabbage came from Epicurious.

Everything was tasty. The Corned Beef a little salty but that is expected from that kind of meat, I guess.

Basically I have over 200+ gift baskets filled with stuff that needs to be auctioned off.

My committee has shoppers and let me tell you, they are THE BEST.

They hover around Target waiting for everything to go 75% and it does.

Then they bring it all to me and in two weekends we wrap it ALL!

Of course, there are stragglers and they presently reside in my not so finished living room.

I still have to finish my program (which is out of the question for today since it is OSCAR night and I have FIOS my other good friends do not since they have Cablevision - you are invited over if you want to watch).

So I will have to try tomorrow to get that program done.

It is a huge event I still have a list of things to do like balloons, printing the program that is not done and so much more.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

For some reason I have this memory stuck in my head that my mom used to cook Chicken Cacciatore.

Which is so odd since my mom's idea of spaghetti sauce back in the day was ketchup.

I had the idea suck in my head and decided to go for it. It was fabulous.

I sort of looked at a recipe and sort of improvised.

Chicken Cacciatore

1 Chicken cut up (8 pieces or so - you can use just breasts, with bone and skin, if you like)

Salt

Pepper

1 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes

1 package mini portobellos

1 small onion

Olive oil

Italian seasonings

Salt and pepper the chicken in a bowl or plate. 2-3 turns of olive oil in a big pot. Add onions until translucent (add a little salt and pepper), then add chicken to brown the skin. Add mushrooms until cooked. Add crushed tomatoes and let simmer.

I really don't know how long I let it simmer but it was delicious over some egg noodles. My daughter tried it and she loved it. The sauce was great too. I plan on making this one again.

About Me

Hi I'm Zizette and I am a mother, wife, special educator and aspiring home decorator (my own). I also love to cook, so you will find new recipes I have been brave enough to try. I am always looking for ways to make our home and life the best it can be. I blog to inspire others and to get inspiration from all the wonderful people out there.